Help me tweak this recipe!

ncmc

Hi all, I am about to finally invest in a La Crueset casserole dish and am making myself very hungry looking up lovely stew and casserole dishes! I like the simplicity of this one from Jamie

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-ale-stew-1

Just wanted to ask a couple of things, I don’t think my husband would eat raw celery, does celery taste a lot different when cooked? I notice it a lot in stew recipes.

I would like to bulk it out to freeze and get a few meals out of it, any ideas on other veg that stews well that I could add?

And finally, anyone recommend a good ale for this? I think I read in another thread that Guinness could be a bit strong.

Thanks in advance!

the beer revolu

The celery in that recipe is cooked - it goes in with the onion and carrot.
I'd use any red or dark ale.
Smithwicks,, O' Hara's Red, 8 Degrees sunburnt red, Dungarvan Copper Coast - most of these should be in your Supermarket or any of the English darker ales like Hobgoblin or London Pride.
A Dunkle weiss is nice in a stew too - Erdinger Dunkle or Franziskaner should be easily available.
Or a stout like O'Hara's Stout or Leann Follain, Dungarvan Black Rock, 8 degrees porter would all be nicer in a stew than Guinness which I find too bitter and burnt tasting in a stew.

Curry Addict

celery onion carrot is a holy trinity in cooking. the combination gives a great balanced savory flavor and is used widely in many aspects of cooking.

the beer revolu

You could throw some leek in there too and garlic, if you like. A little bit of parsnip and mushroom wouldn't do any harm but TBH, I'd just scale up the recipe to make more - adding too many vegetables will just confuse the stew.
Less is more.

ncmc

Curry Addict wrote: »

celery onion carrot is a holy trinity in cooking. the combination gives a great balanced savory flavor and is used widely in many aspects of cooking.

I noticed that celery was an ingredient in nearly all the stews I looked up. This sounds like a stupid question, but when it's cooked, does it taste like raw celery does? I wouldn't be the biggest fan of raw celery and the husband would hate it.

the beer revolu wrote: »

You could throw some leek in there too and garlic, if you like. A little bit of parsnip and mushroom wouldn't do any harm but TBH, I'd just scale up the recipe to make more - adding too many vegetables will just confuse the stew.
Less is more.

Leek and parsnip sounds lovely. I love mushrooms, but I thought they might go like mush if cooked in the oven for a couple of hours?

Dizzyblonde

Cooked celery tastes much nicer than raw celery, and if you're using mushrooms you'd only put them in for the last half hour or so.

the beer revolu

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Cooked celery tastes much nicer than raw celery, and if you're using mushrooms you'd only put them in for the last half hour or so.

+1

I'm not a big fan of celery myself but it really does add to stews, soups and sauces. Tastes quite different cooked. Cut it up small and don't use too much if you're not a lover.

Curry Addict

people often forget that a single ingredient like celery in an overall dish is balanced out by the other ingredients and is never a prominent flavor.
even if you dont like one of them, onion carrot and celery have a great flavor profile together and should be used in a ratio of 2:1:1 for best results.

other holy trinities are...
Creole/Cajun: celery, bell peppers, onion, French: onion, celery, carrots, Greek: lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, Chinese: scallions, ginger, garlic, Indian: garlic, ginger, onion, Indonesian: coconut, chili peppers and fish, Southern Italy: tomato, garlic, basil,
Spanish: garlic, onion, tomato

Alun

My wife claims she hates celery but I put it into a lot of dishes anyway and just cut it up nice and small. If you're cooking a decent stew / casserole nice and slow anyway it'll almost disappear and your hubby won't even know he's eating it ... apart from the flavour it imparts to the rest of the stew that is. The weird thing is that my wife loves celery soup .. explain that if you can!

EZ24GET

Celery cooked is not crisp but very tender. I also don't like celery "strings" so I get out the potato peeler and peel the outside of the celery. Chopped up celery leaves add a different flavor too. Celery is very good in lots of dishes. Also if you really hate bits of celery for some reason you can buy dried celery flakes or celery salt. Also I have never had mushrooms cook to mush.

BailMeOut

EZ24GET wrote: »

Celery cooked is not crisp but very tender. I also don't like celery "strings" so I get out the potato peeler and peel the outside of the celery. Chopped up celery leaves add a different flavor too. Celery is very good in lots of dishes. Also if you really hate bits of celery for some reason you can buy dried celery flakes or celery salt. Also I have never had mushrooms cook to mush.

+1 on celery leaves. Most people discard celery leaves when they can bring so much flavour to a dish. They are especially nice in Italian tomato sauces.